Sigh. I guess we aren't going to learn a thing.

[KonaKane]

So MSNBC injects some hope in us Democrats, with a story saying that Obama is going to turn left and get tougher with the Republicans in the face of the spanking we just got in Massachusetts. Great!

But then, I see this....

Obama, allies now seek pared-down health care bill

WASHINGTON – Chastened by the Democratic Senate loss in Massachusetts, President Barack Obama and congressional allies signaled Wednesday they will try to scale back his sweeping health care overhaul in an effort to at least keep parts of it alive.

A simpler, less ambitious bill emerged as an alternative only hours after the loss of the party's crucial 60th Senate seat forced the Democrats to slow their all-out drive to pass Obama's signature legislation despite fierce Republican opposition. The Democrats are now considering all options.

No decisions have been made, lawmakers said, but they laid out a new approach that could still include these provisions: limiting the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage to people with medical problems, allowing young adults to stay on their parents' policies, helping small businesses and low-income people pay premiums and changing Medicare to encourage payment for quality care instead of sheer volume of services.

Obama urged lawmakers not to try to jam a bill through, but scale the proposal down to what he called "those elements of the package that people agree on."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100120/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul">more misery here

Wow. Way to come out with guns blazing, huh. Let's just bow and scrape lower, and tuck our tales between our legs even tighter.

I'm getting nauseated watching all of this transpire.

[ibegurpard]

1. nice try

a very large contingent of the "left" was not very happy with the "healthcare" reform that was just about a fait accompli.

[arthritisR_US]

2. OMFg.....

:banghead:

[rockymountaindem]

3. Looks better to me

No mandate, less subsidies for the people who have been exploiting human suffering for years... when the "big picture" provisions were going to be so bad (and hugely unpopular) this sounds like a step in the right direction.

[clear eye]

9. That's how it strikes me, too.

And it doesn't prohibit the states for all eternity from creating their own single payer plans.

[rockymountaindem]

13. Oh yeah, I always forget that

how this current bill would preclude single-payer forever. Or so I've heard.

[Mari333]

4. honey, the only way they will listen to you is if you send them a HUGE check

otherwise, you are meaningless. they do not work for the people who elected them. they work for corporations.

[arthritisR_US]

5. that's exaclty the feeling I get. n/t

[TheWebHead]

6. it's realism

I think some people here who want the administration and congress to ignore Tuesday and go further left with the peddle to the metal ignore the fact that the senate and house are comprised of individuals, and if only a few of those people in either body decide to steer towards the middle they effectively torpedo anything those wishing to hammer a liberal agenda through, which would then lead to more legislation getting defeated and more anger & rage from the left.

[KonaKane]

11. Ignore Tuesday?

On the contrary. I want us to get the message. The message that there is massive dissatisfaction with the pace in which the goals of "Change" are being tackled. An anger at the slow deterioration of the will to push a more assertive liberal/left agenda through, a squandered opportunity to make the first Obama year something substantial and a rubric for the coming years.

What I see coming from the White House today, sad to say, is more of an ignorance of the lessons of Black Tuesday than anything else.

[leveymg]

7. If by "pared back" they mean no Senate Cadillac Tax, that's a good thing.

They'll probably have to fund this thing through a surcharge on higher incomes, which is the alternative contained in the House plan. The omnibus Bill needs to be carved up, anyway, with up-down votes on a number of provisions to restore the good stuff, like drug re-importation and removing the antitrust exemption.

This could turn out to be a good bill, after all, if they can get Medicare expansion through both houses.

[rgbecker]

10. I'm sure Scotty Brown is going to vote for a surcharge on higher incomes.

Not.

[leveymg]

14. You don't understand. Reconciliation is by 51/218 vote simple majorities

F-ck Brown and the GOP (and the Blue Dogs). We don't need them.

[county worker]

8. Titles like David and Goliath and the Mouse that Roared come to mind.

[old mark]

12. I have to wait and see on this - I mean, for Obama, going to the left probably won't

look like much to us.

mark